November 2, 2022 — The Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance establishing an appeals process for cannabis cultivators whose permits have been denied, over the objections of advocates who found it inadequate.
Much of yesterday’s morning session was spent in a discussion with Treasurer Tax Collector Auditor Controller Chamise Cubbison, about financial reports and how to speed up recruiting staff for her office.
The appeals process was on the consent calendar, but Supervisor John Haschak pulled it for discussion. Mendocino Cannabis Alliance Director Michael Katz called in to cite the reasons he thought it should be abandoned:
“We strongly object to the passing of it, as it does not provide an equitable appeals process for local licensees; it does not allow continued cultivation or operation during an appeal; it does not address the outstanding vegetation modification issues; it does not include previously directed Board amendments; and it does not reduce the likelihood of lawsuits against the county,” he said.
County Counsel Christian Curtis said the ordinance only applies to people who never got their permits, and that there is a different appeals process in place for those whose permits are being revoked.
“That’s a process that does allow continued operation during the revocation process,” he said. “There’s a hearing at the end. You know, once they have the permit, essentially it’s a different footing, in terms of what has to happen, in terms of investigation, penalties that are assessed or any rights that are taken away. What we’re talking about here is a situation in which someone never had a permit…were ultimately determined by the Department not to be in compliance and not able to obtain a permit. As it stands in the ordinance right now, that determination is final. And once that determination is made, they have to stop.”
The Board passed the consent calendar, including the appeals process, unanimously.
In other cannabis news, the cannabis department is moving from the Ukiah campus on Low Gap to the Willits Justice Center this month. The desk will be closed from November 14 through the holiday weekend, to resume on November 28 at the new location.
Some tension came up in the discussion involving the board, CEO Darcie Antle, and Cubbison, who relayed in great detail how much work she has to do with limited staff as supervisors press for year-end closing numbers, carryover, and answers to questions about uncollected cannabis tax. Cubbison complained that the reports she gets from the CEO’s office do not appear to have been reviewed carefully, and the board directed Antle to make sure they have been scrutinized more closely before they get to Cubbison’s office.
Wendy DeLong, an employee under Cubbison, told the Board she thought the planning was a little late, coming months after supervisors voted to place one person at the head of both departments.
“If you had come up with a plan for this, and there was a transition plan in place,” she opined; “things would have been a lot smoother if you had gotten the employees’ buy-in, if you would have got some cooperation. If you had timed it correctly, we would not be in this situation we are in right now, of just having this desperate lack of people in these two departments.”
Supervisor Dan Gjerde said he was especially interested in filling positions that would result in more local tax collection. Cubbison said when she gets the high-level analyst she needs, she expects the new hire to spend a certain amount of time on that task
“So it does have to do with that,” she said. “It also has the desire to work with some of the reporting needs for cannabis and the property tax. So being able to have an analyst to be able to help assist with the data reporting and analysis in terms of the collections side. I can’t say exactly to what percent, but I would say it would probably be about 50% related to the revenue side of the house, in making sure that we are either collecting what we should be, or are able to report on it.”
Supervisors Glenn McGourty and Ted Williams expressed their wish for a speedy hire.
“It just makes it sound like this is a really critical position,” McGourty said. “It should be the number one position, probably, that we are trying to recruit as a county right now, in terms of upper-level management. So I personally urge the Board to support moving this forward as fast as possible.”
“Well, I think we probably all support that,” Williams said. “It’s a matter of, what can we do to expedite it. Supervisor McGourty, do you feel like you have an answer to your question, or do you want us to light a bigger fire?”
“Light a bigger fire,” McGourty replied.
Human Resources Director William Schurtz said the analyst’s classification was changed in September. Now it needs to be changed again, which means that at the earliest, the county could have a list of qualified applicants ready for review by the middle of the month. An auditor appraiser position is “still flying,” or out for applications, until November 8. Cubbison said she recently hired an assistant from the private sector, but the new person doesn’t have the skills yet to contribute to closing out the books on the fiscal year. She said that in addition to a shortage of staff with government accounting qualifications, which is endemic throughout the state, the complexity of the situation means that she has no estimate of the carryforward from last year.
“I’m not prepared to issue an opinion one way or the other at this point,” she said. “There’s still a significant number of entries that need to be made, and transfers. The Board directed that money be moved to the designated reserve for certain purposes. There’s still designated reserve adjustments that need to take place for the use of the PG&E funds. So there’s not just a couple of things left to happen. There’s still several entries that could swing something in a different direction, and I’m not comfortable providing a guesstimate as to what we may or may not have.”
Cubbison said she expects that number will become available when she closes out the books, which she hopes to do by the end of this month. But she was less optimistic about the usefulness of spending staff time on collecting another unknown amount.
“If you want the Treasurer Tax Collector’s office to step up collections on cannabis, that’s long past due, or has extremely large interest and penalties associated with it,” she told Williams. “I’m not sure that’s going to be an entirely fruitful process.”
